Preamble: I must begin by stating that I am not a member of BJP. I also wish to state that political parties are the vehicle to fulfil the aspirations in a democracy and there is no alternative to that. It is also a fact that any and every party has black sheep, who subvert the system to enrich themselves to the detriment of the country. This is often carried out by sons, daughters or close relatives, who gain extra-judicial authority in ‘fixing’ things for a personal gain. Personal secretaries and assistants often act as ‘agents,’ of leaders, capable of providing deliverables out-of-turn and beyond normal speed or channels.

The story: Karthi Chidambaram son of former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was arrested yesterday at Chennai airport as soon he touched down from his London flight. It’s just four days PC was in Kolkata, during a visit to our Chamber spoke on “Speaking Truth to power,” presenting a nonchalant and innocent face. It seems that his son may have did the former minister in, as the latter rushed concerned and cancelling his scheduled speech at Oxford to be present at the Delhi trial court to witness the proceedings.

Be that as it may, the murky deals of the son started as the father’s clout grew as a Union home minister and later as the Union Finance Minister. The man standing out exposing the many scams of P. Chidambaram and his son Karthi is S. Gurumurthy, a well-connected Chartered Accountant from Chennai, who is also close to BJP having liaised between Jayalalithaa and the NDA when the relations hit the nadir.

His first missile was on the Vasan Eye care in which Gurumurthy claimed that Chidambarams’, made a windfall by the sale of part-paid shares of Rs.30 palmed off for Rs.7500 making a Rs.223 crores profit in benami. The present arrest is over the statement of Indrani Mukherjee admitting payment of bribes on the specific advice of Chidambaram while he was the Finance Minister to companies directly or indirectly having interests to Karthi.

Indrani is a convict, who pre-planned a cold-blooded murder of her daughter and is in jail. Her statements may be suspect and even prompted with a view to get a lenient sentence for her crime to help send Karthi to jail and deeply embarrass his father and the Congress party. However, Gurumurthy is not so and has brought out charges much earlier in 2016. Chidambaram strangely has not challenged them, nor has taken Gurumurthy to court on defaming and character assassinating him and his son, which raises eyebrows.

Charges against Karthi as a ‘fixer’ during UPA tenure was not unknown. His list of indulgences in scams have been detailed by Gurumurthy and are mind-blogging. PC’s connivance may be to the extent of ignoring his son’s overreach or even further.

Congress party should get ready to weed-out corrupt elements at all levels, right from the top, if it must present a viable alternative to BJP and if its members think their party is more important than a few leaders forced to retire to oblivion for a greater cause. The sycophancy will not permit do that, as I surmise.

Many Karthis are in every party and should be plucked and thrown out, if the fruits of true democracy is to be tasted.